not have written such utter trash. The case of Chatterton was altogether a different one. There, indeed, was high genius wrongfully employed; but the enthusiastic admiration of the thing produced might well shut the eyes of the most acute to the inconsistencies which surrounded it. Not so with the new treasures which William Henry Ireland discovered from the pen of Shakspere. The people, however, settled the question. The play was brought out at Drury Lane: and the prologue by Sir James Bland Burgess is another instance of the mode in which the poetasters and witlings venerated Shak spere: "From deep oblivion snatch'd, this play ap pears: It claims respect, since Shakspeare's name it bears; That name, the source of wonder and delight, lies: At the beginning of the nineteenth century No forgeries escape your piercing eyes! cree, Alike from prejudice or favour free. If, the fierce ordeal pass'd, you chance to Rich sterling ore, though rude and unrefin'd, The people did pronounce their "dread "And when this solemn mockery is o'er "— abled to present Shakspere to the popular mind under new aspects, looking at him from a central point, which should permit us, however imperfectly, to comprehend something of his wondrous SYSTEM, we owe the desire so to understand him ourselves to the germs of thought which are scattered through the works of that philosopher; to whom the homage of future times will abundantly compensate for the partial neglect of his contemporaries. We desire to conclude this outline of the opinions of others upon the works of Shakspere, in connection with the imperfect expression of our own sense of those opinions, with the name of COLERIDGE. THE END. G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street. |